Thousands trapped by flooding in Kashmir

Monday, 08 September 2014 - 15:03

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Army and air force troops worked through the night to rescue thousands of people stranded across Kashmir, where more than 300 people have been killed in landslides and flash floods, an Indian official said Monday.

Six days of rains in Indian-controlled Kashmir have left more than 120 people dead in the region's worst flooding in more than five decades, submerging hundreds of villages and triggering landslides, officials said. In neighboring Pakistan, more than 160 people have died and thousands of homes have collapsed.

More than 5,200 people were rescued from various parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir, said O P Singh, director of India's National Disaster Response Force.

Medicine, blankets, tents and food rations were being supplied to people stranded on rooftops, he said, as most parts of Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, were submerged.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the flooding a "national disaster."

In a letter to Nawaz Sharif, his Pakistani counterpart, Modi has offered assistance in relief efforts in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir.

The northern Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, and is claimed in its entirety by both countries.